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A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

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Re: A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

#81

Post by JimDabell »

1123581321 wrote: post #42
mattigames wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the news say that app store is full of porn when you search it on Tumblr but not when you search it on Reddit? If they let at least one company do it it does seem kind of dumb.

I don't know about tumblr, but reddit doesn't allow nsfw subs out of the box on mobile, and for logged in users, you have to explicitly enable it. Obviously you can still find nsfw content on reddit that isn't labeled as such, so beyond that, it's probably up to the developer's soft skills. reddit probably has some people who are good at framing the app in communication with review, escalating review decisions, and c…

> I don't know about tumblr, but reddit doesn't allow nsfw subs out of the box on mobile, and for logged in users, you have to explicitly enable it.

This is an Apple rule. From the App Store Review Guidelines:

> If your app includes user-generated content from a web-based service, it may display incidental mature “NSFW” content, provided that the content is hidden by default and only displayed when the user turns it on via your website.

— https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#use...

Re: A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

#82

Post by JimDabell »

Anon1096 wrote: post #26
saagarjha wrote: post #16

> In the case of Tumblr, this would be a reviewer going to search, typing in something like 'tits’ and finding porn. Just want to emphasize this part. App Store Reviewers are completely asinine. Like, dumb as a rock. It’d almost be funny if their stupidity didn’t block your app approval. To be explicitly clear: if your app contains UGC, they will explicitly go and search for things to ding you on, and then fault you…

How do Reddit and Twitter pass the App Store review process? I'm pretty sure you can trivially find porn by searching for it.

They follow this rule:

> If your app includes user-generated content from a web-based service, it may display incidental mature “NSFW” content, provided that the content is hidden by default and only displayed when the user turns it on via your website.

— https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#use...

Re: A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

#83

Post by JimDabell »

djrockstar1 wrote: post #30

It's appalling to me that iOS developers still exist after all the hoops you have to jump through to get an iOS app out. I'm a web developer that got roped into developing and then publishing a react native app for android and iOS. The android process was relatively painless compared to the crap Apple has you do. For starters, you can't even produce an app build without running on iOS, so the company had to procure a…

> I need to connect to an iPhone as a target device in order to build.

This is not correct. You can build just fine without any iOS device.

Re: A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

#84

Post by JimDabell »

lwansbrough wrote: post #19

Last week we published a news article advertising a holiday deal for our premium subscription. Of course, our app shows our news articles. So the following day, while we were submitting a bug fix release, a reviewer rejected the app on the grounds that it advertised a premium service that was not available via Apple’s IAP subscriptions. We later found out they were talking about the news article preview tile. Their d…

They announced they would no longer do that last year:

> for apps that are already on the App Store, bug fixes will no longer be delayed over guideline violations except for those related to legal issues.

– https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/06/apple-reveals-new-dev...

What did they say when you appealed the decision?

Re: A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

#85

Post by cblconfederate »

saagarjha wrote: post #16

> In the case of Tumblr, this would be a reviewer going to search, typing in something like 'tits’ and finding porn. Just want to emphasize this part. App Store Reviewers are completely asinine. Like, dumb as a rock. It’d almost be funny if their stupidity didn’t block your app approval. To be explicitly clear: if your app contains UGC, they will explicitly go and search for things to ding you on, and then fault you…

Looks like they get paid per rejection

Re: A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

#87

Post by cblconfederate »

artpi wrote: post #49

Another Tumblr dev here: That's not even going into the monetization pieces. As we are implementing tipping and multi-merchant subscriptions in Post+, we still have to use In-App-Purchases with it's severely lacking API. The hoops we have to go through to get money from our App Store account to merchants are insane. We are using Stripe Connect infrastructure and Payouts API to do that, and that would be totally fine,…

Why do you deal with the app store and don't focus on web-only

Re: A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

#88

Post by jbverschoor »

JimDabell wrote: post #80
sudosysgen wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't make sense to me. The iPhone comes with a web browser. If a user wants milfs and butts they can put that in the address bar.

> The iPhone comes with a web browser. The iPhone comes with a web browser that has parental controls . A parent can have some degree of control over what their kids see when they use Safari. A parent does not have that choice with typical applications.

If that's the problem, then simply add a setting which apps can check.

Re: A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

#89

Post by alufers »

saagarjha wrote: post #16

> In the case of Tumblr, this would be a reviewer going to search, typing in something like 'tits’ and finding porn. Just want to emphasize this part. App Store Reviewers are completely asinine. Like, dumb as a rock. It’d almost be funny if their stupidity didn’t block your app approval. To be explicitly clear: if your app contains UGC, they will explicitly go and search for things to ding you on, and then fault you…

Couldn't you just create an account for them that has a few whitelisted posts that are squeaky clean? Or better yet apply the whitelist when a request is made from a not-yet-released version of the app, based on headers?

Re: A Tumblr developer on the App Store approval process

#90

Post by felipelemos »

AnonHP wrote: post #20
lwansbrough wrote: post #19

Last week we published a news article advertising a holiday deal for our premium subscription. Of course, our app shows our news articles. So the following day, while we were submitting a bug fix release, a reviewer rejected the app on the grounds that it advertised a premium service that was not available via Apple’s IAP subscriptions. We later found out they were talking about the news article preview tile. Their d…

The other side of this coin are apps that blatantly show banners on opening them to go to their website and purchase a subscription for cheaper. I reported one such app a few times to Apple (using the new report an issue feature on the App Store). It’s probably been at least a couple of months, and that app still continues to do the same. It’s very clear that the rules are arbitrary and are not enforced uniformly. Ap…

How dare they try to circumvent Apple's magnanimous and generous 30% profit cut and offer a cheaper subscription?
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